Still on my Feet
by Objessions
Summary: Prompt kindly provided by helloyesimhere: How about a story of Mac's early days in the agency, maybe some older agents are bullying him, and Jack doesn't find out about it for a few weeks because he's on a solo mission? My spin on how young Mac might respond to bullies at work and how Jack might feel about it. Rated T for some language and paranoia since this is my first fic here.


**Still on my Feet**

 _A/N – Hey, fellow Mac fans. I've been lurking around for a while now reading and commenting, but this is my first attempt at fan fiction myself. I'm a writer and my first novel is coming out this year, so I hope I don't totally suck at it! I didn't know how to get started so I asked for a little help and helloyesimhere very kindly gave me a prompt. "How about a story of Mac's early days in the agency, maybe some older agents are bullying him, and Jack doesn't find out about it for a few weeks because he's on a solo mission?"I hope my first effort does it justice! This is all un-beta'd so all mistakes belong to me. If you like what you see I welcome prompts! Like all of the other unlucky souls here, I own nothing._

 _Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me knows I don't 'sit' very well. My grandfather noticed it when I was still a little kid. He always said, "Bud, some people are built to sit and some aren't. We just need to find you something to do where you can keep moving." And I thought I had. Mostly it had worked out pretty well, running for track and cross country at school, then the Army being the Army, and DXS was great for keeping me on my toes and away from a desk. I hadn't counted on getting really injured though. That was a new form of hell. Another thing my grandfather always said was, "A bored Angus is a dangerous Angus." I don't know if I'd go that far, but I do know a lot of people have learned not to mess around with me if I've got time on my hands._

Mac shuffled some papers around, squinting and frowning at them, trying to find the building blueprint he was looking for. He'd thought college was bad until he'd been in the Army, where the paperwork was a nightmare designed to make your average (or not so average) bomb tech go blind. Then he'd been recruited by DXS. For an organization that claimed to work above the government's highest recommendations for environmental responsibility, there was an awful lot of unnecessary deforestation associated with it. Of course, it wasn't as bad for a normal mission, one that went according to plan. Cairo had been different. He expected things to go sideways from time to time, but completely off the rails was something else entirely. He was still trying to piece it all together. It wasn't an op he, or more importantly, Director Thornton, wanted to repeat in any way. Ever.

He reached for his water bottle and just barely stifled a hiss through his teeth as a stabbing pain shot up his leg. Three months of rehab and it was still twingy. If it hadn't been, or at least if he'd been better at hiding it, he'd have been cleared for field work three weeks ago when Jack was, and he'd be in Belgium instead of Ross. _Whatever_. He figured he'd just been sitting too long because it felt fine on his morning run. _Well, maybe not fine, but better than awful._ Someone was microwaving something good down the hall and predictably his stomach growled, reminding him that without Jack showing up with bagels and coffee, he'd once again forgotten to eat. He thought about heading to the cafeteria, but when he glanced at the clock he decided to give it an hour or so. He'd had about enough of a couple of the older guys hassling him and they were always down there about now. He frowned as he jotted some notes on the schematic he was staring at. Hassling was probably not a strong enough word. Flat out hazing was probably closer to the truth. They'd done stuff to his food, tampered with his equipment, constantly interrupted him in his office knowing full-well he had a hard time focusing when he had to sit for long periods, even come close to getting him hurt by offering to spot him at the gym and then walking away, nearly turning prescribed exercise that was supposed to get him field-ready into another injury. His door opened and he snapped around, expecting Agent Peterson, the biggest offender at sticking his head through the door just to be an asshole. Instead, Nikki was leaning in, checking a note stuck to the top of her laptop.

"Hey, Mac. I was just in Thornton's office and she asked me to remind you that they expect you over at Medical tomorrow at ten, whether Jack is back or not."

Mac could feel his face get warmer just because she was in the room. He had almost worked up the nerve to ask her to dinner before Cairo happened, but that had thrown a monkey wrench into a lot of things. He was glad the only way she had been there was over the comms. Jack seeing him vulnerable and hurt was one thing, but Nikki was a whole other level of complicated. "Thanks, Nikki. I'm not likely to forget the appointment that'll get me off desk duty."

She nodded, but gave a small chuckle. "That's what I said, but Thornton said you have a bad habit of ' _forgetting_ ' doctor's appointments. Like, unless Jack is around to drag you, you just don't show up."

Mac's face grew hotter. He didn't much appreciate Patricia Thornton revealing personal details about him to anyone who worked at DXS, say nothing about the woman he was seriously considering asking out. He sighed. It's not like he could go yell at his boss. Also, it wasn't exactly untrue, so there was only so angry he could be. Hoping to brush it off and change the subject, Mac was about to ask Nikki to join him for lunch (which was the work version of pre-dating and felt like a good practice run) when Peterson's partner in crime Haselbeck muscled past Nikki, pushing his way in the door, to wave a bag of takeout at him. "Hey Angus, Terry and I called for an extra sandwich for you since your daddy isn't home to feed you."

Mac glanced quickly at Nikki and took in her openly curious expression. No way were either of them going to see this get under his skin. He fixed a tight smile on his face. "Wow, Scott that's so thoughtful of you guys. I do forget to eat when _my partner_ isn't around." There was an edge he couldn't quite keep out of his voice, so he took a quick breath and tried again to sound light and friendly. "Unfortunately, I ordered some Chinese a while ago. Tying up _field mission_ paperwork does work up an appetite."

He hoped Haselbeck felt the dig as he intended it, knowing he and Peterson were at an age and level of fitness that afforded them only the lowest level type of field work and they spent more time jockeying a desk on a given week than Mac planned to do again before he retired. The drawing together of the man's eyebrows told him the insult hit home. _Good_. He was starving, but if he wasn't going to get lunch with Nikki anyway, he sure as hell wasn't going to eat something they'd tampered with again. Having a black tongue for three days his first week back in the office had been lesson enough. Sure, it was basically harmless when it first started, but after the crap they'd pulled at the gym Monday, he wouldn't put it past them to dose him with something that would really make him sick at this point.

Haselbeck shrugged indifferently, but even Nikki could see the man's irritation. As he walked away, Nikki leaned on the door jamb. "What was that all about?"

Mac shrugged like it was unimportant. "Who knows?" Then he thought of a very convincing lie that he only felt half-bad about telling. "Probably because he was the senior consult on the Cairo debrief and he said some stuff about how we handled things getting to exfil … I lost my temper a little. He's been trying to buy me lunch ever since. Maybe he realizes he was a jerk."

Nikki hadn't been in on all the debrief meetings. She actually wondered a little what Mac would look like if he got really angry. He was so carefully controlled, so compartmentalized, she thought if he really lost his temper it would be like someone expecting to have lit a sparkler, but instead getting a nuclear blast. She sort of wanted to see it, but not if it was directed at her. He had been so dispassionate on the comms when things went bad in Cairo that she'd had no idea how badly off he and Jack had been until she went to see them in the infirmary several days later when they'd been moved home from the hospital overseas. "Oh. Too bad you already ate. I was hoping you'd come have lunch with me on the roof. It's gorgeous out."

 _Damn it all to hell. I'm a spy. I lie all the time. And sometimes I regret it. I've never regretted another lie I've ever told quite as much as that one. Lunch with Nikki would have been … well a lot nicer than being hungry in my office just avoiding guys who haven't figured out they aren't the cool guys in high school yet._

Mac smiled. Nikki's responding smile let him know that Jack was right, that was his charming one. "That _is_ too bad. No matter what the weather is, lunch with you would guarantee it'd be gorgeous out there."

He felt his slight flush turn into a full on blush of embarrassment. _God, that sounded like such a line._ He hated guys who did that. Nikki was way too attractive and clever to fall for that garbage. She'd probably walk out and not speak to him for a week.

Instead she laughed lightly. "I knew there was something here, Angus MacGyver." She winked and he laughed, more nervously than anything else, but it sounded okay to him. "Tell you what, let's have lunch after your doctor's appointment tomorrow. My place is only a few blocks away. I'll cook you something amazing."

Emboldened by her obvious flirting, Mac had a rare surge of courage in the presence of a female and suggested, "I do eat dinner, too. We could get something after work."

She was turning to go, but glanced over her shoulder with a very deliberate smoldering look. "Let's wait until tomorrow. I want to be sure strenuous activity isn't off the table before I take you home with me."

Mac's eyes widened as she sauntered off. Well, if he'd had any doubt about the level of her interest, she'd just dispelled it. And he'd avoided her figuring out what was up between him and the Gruesome Twosome of Doom. He felt shockingly cheerful about finishing up his mission summary as he turned back to it. He was through the bulk of it and was humming some innocuous piece of pop music Bozer had played while he was getting ready for work this morning, thinking with warm anticipation of being cleared for field work and going out with Nikki all in the same day, when an extremely moist spitball hit him in the back of the head with a wet splat. He reached with slow deliberation for a tissue to wipe it off. When he turned around, Haselbeck and Peterson were of course standing in the doorway bent nearly double with immature laughter at their own puerile behavior. When they saw Mac's young face take on some harder lines as he turned to them, saw his sky-blue eyes flash like arctic ice for just a second, they stopped laughing. But then they took in his freshly tousled blond hair, too big t-shirt and jeans, and dusty sneakers and told themselves he was barely a fully-trained agent. They told themselves he was just a kid with an ex-Delta handler who forged their team's reputation. They said as much as they took off down the hall still laughing and calling insults over their shoulders.

They felt like they could take the gloves off and just openly harass him. So, Thornton was gone for the day. Of course it was against the rules and it had never been a problem before. Mac realized from what they said it was probably only Jack's almost constant presence at the agency that had kept them at bay. That realization, as he sat at his desk absently massaging his leg above the knee where he now had a scar that might keep shorts off his summer clothing list permanently, actually pissed him off more than the crap they'd been pulling. He was especially glad he hadn't told them Jack was supposed to be back in town tonight when he'd mentioned his partner.

 _I appreciate Jack's protective streak. Well, maybe I don't always appreciate it, but I understand it. I just don't want him thinking he always has to fight my battles for me. He has enough of his own. And I've had to hold my own with tougher guys than a couple of washed up agents too dumb to retire and do something more fun with their middle age. But I've dealt with my share of guys like these … The skinny, nerdy kid who destroyed the football field? Yeah, I've been a target before. My grandfather was always good for pearls of wisdom when I confronted bullies as a kid. My favorite thing told me about a really bad situation with guys like these was, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you want to get even." I don't know if I want to get even. But I know I don't want to still be dealing with this when Jack gets back._

Mac wanted them to leave him alone. But he wanted it to be because they'd learned their lesson, not because they were afraid of Jack kicking their teeth in. Although, Mac had to admit, after the spitball incident, watching Jack kick their trash all over the office would have been tremendously satisfying. But Mac thought he had a better idea. He got up from his desk and shrugged into his well-worn leather jacket. He casually picked up a handful of paperclips and slipped them into his pocket as he left his office, locked the door, and headed upstairs to the lab. He was sure he could find what he wanted there.

Jack had rolled in to Mac's at around eight the next morning expecting to have to shake him out of bed and have to herd him through getting ready and get him to the office, and even then expected to be late because there was no way he wasn't going to drag his feet. He and Patty had a good laugh about it when he checked in by phone last night, in fact. She was more worried about him playing shepherd to Mac than she was about him coming in with Ross for the debrief. She had said, "Ross can do the full report and I'll check in with you later. Get Mac to the doc and hopefully mission ready. Something is going on with him and I want the two of you back to normal sooner rather than later." What Jack found was an impatient Mac waiting for him at the door with two reusable travel mugs of coffee and a manila folder with the physical form he needed the doctor to sign with his information already filled out. Jack had laughed and turned right around with the bag of bagels and headed back to his car saying he wasn't expecting to be greeted by such an eager beaver this morning. Mac closed his door, buckled up, and started fishing around in the bag for the buttered poppy seed he knew was waiting for him.

"Yeah, well, I want to go in early. I have some stuff to finish up."

Jack noticed the way Mac was very deliberately not looking at him and was eating his breakfast with one hand, but already fidgeting with a paperclip with the other. He didn't even put it down when he used that hand to pick up his coffee and sip it. Patty was right. Something was up with the kid. Oh well, he'd figure it out. He bet himself two beers that he could do it before Mac's appointment at ten. Of course, all that might be up was nerves. About the appointment in general, and about another round of desk duty in particular. Jack wasn't too worried. He gave Mac multiple opportunities to open up on the drive in, but Mac distracted him by confessing that he was having lunch with Nikki today and filling him in about their brief, but very intriguing, conversation. Mac didn't have much confidence with women and Nikki seemed a little mature to Jack, but she was smart, pretty, and she knew the business, so it might work out okay after all. When they got to the DXS building, Mac was expecting Jack to disappear upstairs to start his mission report and wait for Thornton, but Jack told him with a wink that he was on babysitting duty until Mac was actually in an exam room with the doc over at the infirmary. Mac gave him the look; the one that said he kind of wanted to be pissed off, but that he knew it was good natured teasing that came from a place of genuine concern, and not the relentless ribbing meant to make him feel like garbage that he'd been enduring for the past three weeks. He almost told Jack then, but something made him hold his tongue. Regardless of how effective his own revenge turned out to be, Jack was still going to want to pummel those guys. Instead he just asked his friend to leave his office door open when Jack followed him in and put his feet up on his desk. When Jack cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him, he claimed it was stuffy.

Mac tried to look busy with paperwork, but it was pretty clear to Jack that Mac was just shuffling things around, and he noticed the kid casting furtive glances at the door and looking like he was listening for something down the hall. Finally Jack couldn't stand it anymore. "Okay Mac, somethin's goin' on with you. I know it. You know it. And you can go ahead and shake in your boots a little, 'cause Patty knows it. You gonna 'fess up or do I have to dedicate myself to some serious interrogation?"

MacGyver was spared a reply by shouts, and swearing, and commotion coming from the locker room down the hall. "Act casual," he hissed at Jack and bent over his desk as though he were really busy.

The request was lost on Jack, who had gotten to his feet and was craning his neck to see or hear what was going on. He didn't have to wait long before two very disgruntled agents covered in hot pink foam that was steaming a little stomped by heading toward the gym and the attached athletic locker room because it held the showers. Peterson stopped at Mac's open door, so angry that he didn't even notice Jack. "You just wait, you little shit."

Mac spun his chair around and calmly steepled his fingers under his chin. "Are you implying that I had something to do with this, Agent Peterson?" He was answered with only a growl and some panting mumbled curses. "Now I … I don't engage in sophomoric pranks. I'm a trained agent in the Department of External Services. Wasting government time and resources playing pranks, or worse, harassing my fellow agents would be an actionable offense." He let that float for a minute and he could see the truth of the situation dawning on Jack who looked ready to interrupt. "But it looks to me like maybe you finally irritated someone with an inclination for revenge. Irritated. I'd hate to see what the guy would do if you ever went far enough to make him angry."

Peterson glared at him for another minute and by then Jack had enough, so he got a handful of the guy's foam covered jacket and dragged him out in the hall, talking too quietly for Mac to hear, but it sure sounded like the guy was getting the chewing out of a lifetime. He shook his head and dug around in his desk drawer for the wet wipes he kept in there for when he was stuck eating lunch at his desk. When Jack came back in he handed him one. "Oh, Jack, you shouldn't have done that. It's gonna stain your skin. Badly."

Jack used the cloth to wipe the foam away, seeing that Mac was right, even with the foam gone his fingers were stained an offensively bright pink. "What is it?"

Mac looked at his feet, embarrassed. He really did think that sort of thing was sophomoric. He hated that he'd been reduced to participating in it, and more that he was about to admit it to Jack. "Semi-permanent hair dye, from the pharmacy around the corner."

Now Jack was smirking. "How long'll that take to wash off Thing 1 and Thing 2 out there?"

Mac couldn't help but snicker. "Weeks. A couple at least."

Jack tossed the wipe into the trash and sat back down, leaning back comfortably and putting his feet back up. He was giving Mac a very speculative look. "And how'd you get it all over 'em?"

Seeing the look on Jack's face had Mac starting a reluctant grin. "You ever hear of elephant toothpaste?" Jack shook his head. "It's this thing where you mix some dish soap and coloring and a little hydrogen peroxide together and then when you're ready you add some sodium iodide and it acts as a catalyst for an exothermic reaction …"

"Mac, I'm gonna need you to slow down and put this in Jack-dummy-talk for me, a'ight?"

Mac laughed, and Jack liked how much more natural it sounded than the tight forced laugh he'd been hearing out of the kid all morning. "You mix a bunch of chemicals together and they get hot and it makes the soapy stuff foam up … forcefully. I used some lab gloves, and I broke into their day lockers and rigged it all up to break open and mix when they …"

Jack's feet were suddenly on the floor again and he was meaning forward looking at him very seriously. "And what would make my favorite Boy Scout do such a nasty thing?"

There was a very hard edge in his voice now and it made Mac shift uncomfortably in his chair. "You know," he mumbled, looking away, "just stupid prank war kinda stuff."

"Angus Henry MacGyver!" Jack said sharply, and Mac flinched at the sound of his whole name. "What have we agreed about lying to each other?"

Mac forced himself to look Jack in the eye. "That we won't." He swallowed. "Alright. They've been giving me no end of shit since you left for Belgium. How'd that go, by the way?" Mac tried to change the subject.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Just dandy there, brother. Just a witness relocation gig. Bored spitless for most of it. But it sounds to me like maybe you weren't bored here."

Mac's shoulders slumped a little. "Yeah, I wish. You're wrong. I was bored. Probably why they made me so mad." Jack's friendly chuckle made him feel a little better. Jack knew at least as much about the dangers of a bored Angus as his grandfather had. Especially after they'd stayed together through much of their recovery from the Cairo fiasco. "Anyway, I was just gonna let it go, but Monday Peterson offered to spot me at the gym and then took off after putting on more weight than I was expecting. Nearly pulled something in my back."

Jack interrupted, "You're gonna tell the doc about that this mornin' aren'tcha?"

Mac gave him the expected smirk, "Sure I will." Jack's face creased in a frown that Mac recognized as not just escort-Mac-to-the-doctor but follow-him-in-and-complicate-his-life-by-blowing-his-perfectly-rehearsed-story-out-of-the-water. "I mean, Jack," he said with his most charming grin, the platonic version of the one he'd used on Nikki the day before. "Of course I will." Jack looked a little happier. "And there was just a bunch of other low level garbage. I finally figured I'd give them a reason to leave me alone that they wouldn't forget for a while."

Jack got up and came around Mac's desk and sat on the edge of it looking down at him with very real concern. "You know I'll give 'em a reason they won't forget the second you say the word, brother."

Mac smiled up at him, surprised by the lump in his throat that often snuck up on him when he realized that when Jack called him ' _brother_ ' he really meant it and that Mac felt the same way. Having family again was weird. But it was wonderful, too. "I know that, Jack. But sometimes it's nice to be out from under your shadow." He stood and punched Jack lightly on the arm. "I'm the chess club kid whose big brother is the star quarterback around here."

"Now Mac," Jack began, ready to give MacGyver a lecture about his many merits.

"Jack, I don't mean it like that," he sighed, leaning against the edge of the desk. "I just need them to look past my age and know that I can hold my own, can face things on my own. That I can take a stand when I need to."

Jack couldn't quite look at him when he thought about how often Angus MacGyver had been alone in his young life. "You don't need to stand alone anymore, Mac."

Mac elbowed him, ready to break the serious mood. "But I did, and here I am still on my feet."

Jack glanced at his watch. "'Bout time we get you over to the infirmary." Mac sighed. He was looking forward to being back in the field but there was nothing that was going to make him look forward to a doctor's appointment. He picked up the folder with the necessary form in it off his desk and started out the door as Jack added, "Of course, from what you've told me about this lunch date, stayin' on your feet ain't exactly the goal."

Mac rolled his eyes as he felt his face start to warm. "Shut up, Jack."

Jack got up and started to follow him down the hall. Mac took long strides trying to beat him to the elevator. Jack called out, "You are gonna ask the doc if strenuous activity is okay, right Mac?"

Nikki stepped out of her office in time to hear Mac's frustrated, "Shut up, Jack!" just as the elevator doors closed in Jack's face.

She gave Jack an inquisitive look and he shrugged. "I told Patty I'd follow him, but I think I better go buy some donuts instead. I oughta kiss and make up with our boy. Pink is definitely not my color."

Jack headed out the door and left Nikki standing alone in the hallway, wondering if she would ever be able to figure out the dynamic between those two, and wondering idly, somewhere in the back of her mind, how she could use it to her advantage.

The End


End file.
